frozen

two hearts
        contract...

the desire to touch
        or even
            feel
                fades...

Outside, in the fish pond
a wild-eyed toad
humps a dead mate...

mid-jump poised
in its last earth act;

skull crushed by a
child’s careless mattock:

life red and frozen
        ejaculates...

meanwhile, inside,
    broken hearts
        coagulate...

Copyright © Paul Dobbyn Poetry